While just hacking around today because there's nothing of interest, I found a follow up to yesterday's note about how the House threw away a half billion taxpayer dollars by paying for contracts on equipment that will never be used.
It seems that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "lost or misplaced" more than $8 million in property in 2007, including computer and video equipment, according to government auditors. Then I saw a comment by Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. He said "There are a lot of agencies that do their job well, but they don't manage the 'little things' very well. The Defense Department is notorious for losing all kinds of equipment, but they do a pretty good job defending the country."
So, I guess what it all boils down to is, that if its not your money you really don't have to get upset about how much gets lost or stolen, even if you're the president of an organization dedicated against waste.
In the meantime, I saw an item that the Republicans in the House plan to demand that every new bill in Congress be measured against the Constitution, to insure its within the law. According to the same Tom Schatz, they're also going to put everything up on the web for three days to let people scour through the actual bills, and to check all titles and sections to see if what the legislators say is in the bill is actually there. Although the capability to do that has been there for many years, Congress has continually refused to let people see what they're doing.
While all of this sounds pretty good, and will likely have great benefit down the line, I also noticed that many commentators agree that the next election campaign will begin right after January 1st. So here we have a "new" Republican leadership in the House talking about all kinds of changes for the betterment of the American people, because, according to them, the public's demand for change has been heard loud and clear and the demand will be met, yet there's much more to be dealt with.
Because, while the party's gearing up for the presidential campaign, who's at the top of the list? Why none other than Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. And that looks like recycling 101 to me. So, if after all the noise and smoke and hype and grandiose verbiage, that pack of clowns is all they can come up with, the campaign's over right now. Obama's a slam dunk winner.
But maybe one of these days one of the parties will figure out that that 40% and growing number of independent folks that will swing the vote don't want another politician in office. They want someone who can get a job done. Perhaps someone like Bloomberg was, before he sold out and became political scum like all the rest. I've heard the name Jeb Bush thrown around and he's closer to the model than most, but he's got the baggage of his family to weigh him down.
But regardless of who finally gets the nod, what's most important is, that if its simply another blowhard politico put up by the Dem's opposition, if those folks really wanted to help the country they'd donate their campaign funds right now to help reduce the deficit, because none of those recycled losers has got a prayer of being elected.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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